This invention relates generally to a machine for severing standing crops from the ground to initiate a harvesting process and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for oiling driveshaft splines connecting a power take-off shaft to a bevel gearbox.
Disc cutterbars used on agricultural harvesters typically comprise at least one power take-off, usually in the form of a hydraulic motor, to drive the cutterbar. The hydraulic driver is typically connected to a gearbox to enable power to be delivered to multiple inputs on the cutterbar. Mechanical drives are favored to enable synchronization of all rotating disc cutters on the cutterbar; such mechanical drives feature bevel gearboxes to allow transverse shafts to be provided for powering the cutterbar at multiple transverse locations. Newer gearbox designs feature an integral connection for the PTO driver featuring a splined connection between the driver shaft and the top bevel gear for the connection. Lubrication of the splined connection has proven difficult in many applications. Grease was conveniently used to lubricate the splined connection, but was susceptible to being displaced from the connection resulting in spline fretting, corrosion, and eventually failure of the splined connection.
It would be advantageous to have a PTO driver to gearbox connection that would enable oil from the gearbox cavity to provide effective lubrication to the splined shaft connection area. Further advantages would be realized by a lubrication design that could be easily incorporated into existing gearbox designs thereby enabling improved shaft spline lubrication with minimal impact on header production and easily implemented as a retrofit.